


Animorphs: 2010

by LibbbyWrites



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Characters as Adults, F/M, Gen, Other, all grown up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-07-26
Packaged: 2017-11-10 20:08:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/470162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LibbbyWrites/pseuds/LibbbyWrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The year is 2010 and the Yeerks have only just arrived on Earth. Jake, a veteran in his mid-20's, must put his career plans on hold when he and his friends discover a dying alien who warns them about the coming invasion. (AU, cross posted from ffnet)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

My name is Jake.

 

Sometimes.  The rest of the time, it’s Staff Sergeant Berenson.  Soon it will be Warrant Officer Berenson, if I can keep my nose clean long enough for the paperwork to go through.

 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been utterly convinced that my purpose in life is to fly.  Commercial planes were my vehicle of choice when I was little.  My Grandpa G used to take me up in his little two-seater Cessna.  The regional airport we flew out of was within sight of the big municipal one, and as Grandpa G taught me (unofficially) how to fly his prop plane, I would admire the larger aircraft that circled overhead.  The 757s and the DC-10s, mostly.  I told my grandfather with all the conviction a 10 year-old could muster that I was going to be a pilot some day.

 

As I got older, Navy fighter planes became my obsession.  I knew without a doubt that when I grew up, I would fly one.  I learned everything I could about them, collected models of them, read books about them.  I had posters of engines on my ceiling when most guys my age had centerfolds of Pamela Anderson.  I applied to the Naval Academy as soon as I got out of high school.  They rejected me; in my furor for studying aircraft, I’d forgotten that English and chemistry all those other classes factored into my GPA.

 

The Army took me after the Navy wouldn’t and promised me a chance to go to jump school, become a paratrooper.  It was the fastest way to get me into the air and I took it without looking back.  My friends said I had a bad habit of leaping without looking.  I liked to tell them that free-fall was the only place I felt at home.

 

I continued to be obsessed with flying, though.  By the time I was 27 the obsession was with helicopters.  I had a plan, a solid plan this time, for how to get myself into the pilot’s seat of one.  Having finally completed my bachelor’s degree through night courses, I’d set my sights on becoming a Warrant Officer and going to flight school.  In true army style, though, this wasn’t as straightforward as it sounded.

 

“I don’t get it.  Why didn’t you just do all this the first time you joined?”  Marco, my best friend since childhood, didn’t understand the finer points of my plan.

 

“Because I was too busy jumping _out_ of planes to fly one,” I told him.  “And then after that I was trying to be an officer.  And in any case, that’s not the point.  Major Hart finally approved the packet and sent it in, so I should be out of here in a couple of months.”

 

We sat in the mall food court, the same place we’d been hanging out since we were twelve.  For almost a year, I’d been stationed at a base less than an hour from my hometown, so visiting Marco had become a regular event again.

 

Marco leaned back in his chair, balancing it on two legs as he checked out girls that were nearly a decade younger than him.  He’d been comically short until he hit a growth spurt in the last year of high school.  Even still, he barely breaks average.  He makes up for his stature with an easy, grinning confidence, though.  One which he matches with an easy, confident grin most of the time.  His long hair, sharp wit, and pretty-boy face add together to make him the bane of mothers everywhere.

 

“We’ll all be heartbroken until you return,” Marco mocked.

 

I was about to point out that Marco had never been heartbroken over anything in his life, but that wasn’t true.  I’d been there the whole time Marco had to carry his dad, after his mom died when he was eleven.  He knew more about that subject that he liked to let on.

 

“I’m sure you’ll find something to distract you,” I said instead, following his gaze to a group of girls sitting a few tables over.  “Dude, they’re like fifteen.”

 

“Now, Jake, a fine, upstanding officer-to-be shouldn’t be thinking such dirty thoughts,” Marco told me, wagging one finger in admonishment.  “ _I_ was just observing the environment, after all.”

 

I rolled my eyes at him.  He was impossible to argue with when he thought he was being funny.  “You almost done?  I’ve got to get up early tomorrow.”

 

Marco looked down at the trash leftover from his dinner and shrugged.  “Don’t you always have to get up early?”  He picked up his tray and headed toward the trashcans, and I followed with mine.

 

“Doesn’t change the facts.  It’s a long drive back to base.”

 

We headed for the mall’s exit, companionably silent.  As we stood on the down the escalator, Marco suddenly jumped up to the step behind me.  “Oh, shit.  Pretend I’m not here.”

 

I stepped out of the way, not about to play party to Marco’s games.  “Who’s gunning for you this time?”

 

“No one.  It’s Tobias.”

 

I had no idea who he was talking about until he pointed at a scrawny, sandy-blond man in glasses near the exit.  He looked vaguely familiar, although I couldn’t begin to guess why.

 

“He doesn’t look too bad.  I bet you could take him.”

 

“He’s not out to fight me.  He’s one of the new guys at the shop.”

 

I furrowed my brows and looked at the guy again.  He didn’t look like a mechanic.

 

Marco, never one with an educational bent, had bounced around from one job to another after high school, trying out such wildly divergent careers that I was pretty sure he’d been part of every profession out there except the oldest.  And some days, I wasn’t even sure about that last one.  For the past six months, he’d been working at a car shop, using his computer skills to work on their newer cars.

 

“So what’s wrong with him?  He doesn’t look like a car guy.”

 

“He’s not.  I got him the job working the front desk and now I can’t shake him.  Seriously, the guy has no friends.  It’s kind of pathetic.”

 

I rolled my eyes and just kept walking toward the exit.  The man, Tobias, looked engrossed in the advertisement he was studying, but as we pulled even with him he glanced up and locked eyes with Marco.

 

“Hi, Marco.  I didn’t know you had tonight off.”

 

Marco plastered on a grin that looked genuine, but which I knew to be fake.  “Hey, Tobias.  What are you doing here?”

 

“Shopping.”  He twitched his arm, brining attention to the bag he was carrying.  It had a logo from an arts and crafts store across the side.  “Hey, aren’t you Jake Berenson?”

 

I blinked a few times, at a loss for what to say.  “Um, do I know you?”

 

“We went to high school together.”

 

“That’s...oh.”  High school was eight years ago.  If I’d known this guy then, I’d long since forgotten him.  I thought desperately for something I could say that wouldn’t sound insulting.  “I thought you looked a little familiar.”

 

Behind Tobias’ back, I saw Marco roll his eyes.  Then he grinned wickedly at something behind me.

 

I whipped around just in time to stop my cousin, Rachel, from grabbing my shoulder. 

 

“Jumpy as ever, I see,” she laughed.  “Still haven’t calmed down from your last trip to the sandbox?”

 

I let go of her hand but declined to answer.  Rachel had never taken my career choices seriously.  Then again, Rachel had the tendency to look down on everyone who didn’t work ruthlessly to graduate from one of the toughest law schools in the country and then make junior partner at her law firm in only two years.  She ended up looking down on a lot of people.  They let her get away with it because she was leggy and blonde and gorgeous.  Being related to her, though, I didn’t feel the need to act enthralled.

 

Next to her stood Cassie, her best friend.  My ex-girlfriend.  I’d spent an entire year in high school convinced I was going to marry Cassie, only to have a falling out with her just before graduation.  If my life depended on it, I couldn’t say what that fight was about.  Something insignificant and stupid that stood in for the larger issues we refused to talk about. 

 

She wouldn’t look me in the eye and I didn’t attempt to make her.

 

“Hey, Rachel, Cassie.”  Marco stepped in to fill the sudden tense mood.  “We haven’t seen you guys in years.”

 

Not exactly true.  I saw Rachel most years at Christmas.  And I’d seen Cassie right after my second overseas tour.  Alone.  In my old room, while my parents were out.

 

I hadn’t told Marco about that and I was willing to stake everything I owned that Cassie hadn’t told Rachel.

 

“Who’s your friend?” Rachel asked, eyeing Tobias.  Marco made introductions while Cassie and I stood to either side of the group, trying to ignore each other.

 

“Where are you parked?” Marco finally asked.  “We’ll walk together.”

 

“Are you still trying that lame ladies’ man routine?”  Rachel made a face that on anyone else would have been a sneer.  “No one here’s going to fall for it.”

 

Marco just laughed and shrugged.  “Be awkward for you if we really are parked next to each other then, won’t it?  Are you still driving that flashy yellow mid-life-crisis of yours?”

 

I saw Cassie try to cover a grin, but Rachel frowned and turned on her heel to head out the door.  The rest of us followed her since, as Marco had hinted, there was only one parking lot through that exit.  I fell behind the group and Cassie drifted back to join me almost, but not quite, naturally.  The silent tension between us was thick enough to cut with a knife until I blurted out, “Are you still living with your parents?”

 

Immediately I regretted the question, but she took it in stride.  “Yeah.  It helps to be close to the Center, in case there’s an emergency.”

 

The Wildlife Rescue Center used to be nothing more than Cassie’s barn.  In the past few years it had been expanded thanks to increased state funding, and now it included three shiny new buildings.  Cassie and both her parents were all vets, even though Cassie had just gotten her license.  Eight years seemed a long time to study to do something she’d been doing with her dad since she was old enough to walk upright, but I wasn’t about to voice that thought.

 

In that last moment of relative normalcy, the only worry on my mind was finding something to say to Cassie.  A few seconds later, we all had bigger things to worry about.

 

I’ll never know what alerted me.  Probably some slight noise, or some sort of percussion effect from the ship’s landing.  Whatever the reason, I suddenly stopped and looked across the street.  A derelict office building stood there, some doomed project that had been in construction for five years.  Every few years someone bought it and then abandoned it again, until the only things consistent about the place were the homeless that squatted there and the overgrown landscaping.

 

The others stopped a few feet away when they noticed I wasn’t following them anymore.

 

“Jake, man, come on.  What happened to your early morning?”

 

“Stay here,” I told him, distracted by what I thought I saw.  Something back there was _glowing_.  It wasn’t the normal yellow/white glow of florescent lighting or flashlights, but a blue one.  I thought I heard the faint sounds of an engine winding down, but I couldn’t be sure.  It was like no engine I’d heard before.

 

I checked for traffic almost as an afterthought and jogged across the street for a better look.  Every instinct I had screamed that something was wrong and that I should find out what.  Never leave an unknown threat at your back.

 

The glow came from around the corner of the three-story building, just out of sight.  I flattened myself against the near wall and looked around the edge.  There was the blue glow, hovering a foot off the ground for no reason that I could see.  It cast strangely shaped shadows across the ground despite the fact that there were no obstacles.  It almost looked like light spilling out of a door, but there was no door anywhere near it.  There was nothing near it.

 

“Hey, Mr. Paranoid, what are you doing?”

 

I almost jumped out of my skin when I heard Marco behind me and I spun around to shush him.  “Something’s over there.”

 

“Something like what?”  Marco started to walk around the corner of the building, but I grabbed his shirt and yanked him back.  Not before he saw the blue light, though.  From across the parking lot, I saw Rachel, Cassie, and Tobias coming up as well.  I motioned for them to stand flat against the wall behind me.

 

Cassie and Tobias complied, but Rachel stopped a few feet out, crossed her arms, and glared at me.  I wasn’t in a mood to deal with anyone’s shit, so I stepped over to yank her closer to the wall.  She started to protest then thought better of it, looking more worried than offended.  Our family was full of women who would tan your hide for disrespect; she knew I wouldn’t manhandle her without very good reason.

 

I held one finger up for silence and we all heard it: the sound of hooves.  _Thunk.  Thunk.  Tha-clunk._   Whatever it was, it had an uneven gait.  I risked another glance around the corner of the wall.  There was a ramp descending down from the bottom of the blue glow.  A four legged creature was walking down it, but all I could see were the feet.

 

Walking down the ramp.  Down from nothing.  The same nothing that cast shadows and hid the creature from view.

 

I flattened against the wall again and looked at the others, shaking my head slightly.  I had no idea what was going on.  One by one, they all stepped up to peek around the corner.

 

Cassie was the one who said what was on all our minds.  “It’s...an invisible spaceship.”

 

If I hadn’t seen it (or rather, not seen it) with my own eyes, I would have laughed at her.  But as impossible as it was, it was also the most reasonable explanation.  There was _something_ solid over there.  Something that also happened to be completely invisible, except where it blocked out the light.

 

For once, Marco didn’t take the opportunity to make a quip.  He just stared dumbly out into the dark.  I would have given anything to have him make some joke at our expense, point out some trick of the lighting or some obvious fact that we all missed.  But he had nothing.

 

Tobias was still looking around the corner, and after a moment he stepped away from our hiding spot, closer to the invisible craft.  I noticed too late to grab him.  “He’s hurt,” Tobias said, and we heard him take off running across the pavement.

 

I cursed under my breath and ran after him.  Couldn’t let him face whatever was over there alone, even if I had only known the guy a few minutes.  Or twelve years, depending on who you asked.

 

The rest of the creature was visible now.  Undeniably an alien.  He looked like a centaur, almost, with blue fur covering his body.  A centaur with no mouth and two extra eyes mounted on top of his head.  Two extra eyes that were easy to miss, since everyone’s attention was drawn to his tail, stretched out over his head and topped with a wicked looking blade.  I kept my eyes on that tail, trying to judge how far it could reach, as I drew close to Tobias and yanked him back.

 

“Knock it off, he’s hurt.”  Tobias tried to pull out of my hold, but I wasn’t about to let go.  Only after he’d commented on it a second time did I notice that the alien’s flank was torn and streaked with blue blood, jagged-edged objects sticking out in a few places.  I knew shrapnel when I saw it.  I knew wounds, too.  Unless the alien kept his version of an appendix there, it was very, very bad.

 

Cassie gasped behind me and tried to run forward, but I caught her with my other hand, keeping everyone out of reach of that blade.  An injured enemy could often be the most dangerous, the most desperate.

 

“We’re not going to hurt you,” Tobias said, still trying to knock my hand off his arm.

 

{I know.}

 

The voice sounding in my head startled me into jerking, almost pulling Cassie off her feet by accident.

 

{Don’t be frightened.  I’m not here to hurt you.}

 

“We’re not sca- Jake let go.  You’re hurting me.”  Cassie grabbed my middle finger and yanked it back, until pain made me realize what I’d been doing.  I let go of her and Tobias, but I stayed back when they both rushed forward.  Sometimes you just can’t stop people from doing something foolish.

 

The alien staggered as Cassie tried to get a good look at his wound.  His back leg on that side didn’t seem strong enough to hold him.  Cassie reached out like she was going to try and support him, but she had no idea how to.  You can’t exactly offer a shoulder to lean on to a horse.  “I have a kit in my truck,” she said, talking too fast.  Probably to keep her teeth from chattering.  “I’ll go get it.  You just stay right here, we can fix this.  I’ll go and come right back and-”

 

{I am dying.}

 

Something about the way the alien said it made me relax.  He sounded resigned.  Accepting.  Unafraid.  Not at all like someone who would lash out in his last moments.

 

“No you’re not,” Tobias protested.  He reached out steady the alien when he swayed again.  “Cassie, go get it.  We’ll stay here.  Or is there something we can use on your...um, your ship?”

 

The alien shook his head.  {Don’t.  I am dying.  You know this.}  The two fixed eyes on his face looked directly at me as he said it, though the extra two roved around the parking lot non-stop.  Constant vigilance.  I recognized another soldier, even one in so different a uniform. 

 

I nodded at him very slightly to show I understood.  “Can we do anything for you?” I asked, stepping forward at last.

 

He shook his head.  {I’ve come to warn you.  There are others, not far behind me.}

 

I glanced down at his bloody side.  “Others like you?”

 

{Not like me.  They have come to destroy you.}


	2. Chapter Two

{Not like me. They have come to destroy you.}

“Destroy?” Marco came up behind me, though I noticed he stayed behind me. “Seriously?”

{I don’t have much time.} The alien stumbled again and finally dropped down onto all four knees. 

I knelt with him to stay at eye level, not sure why. It just seemed respectful. “We can get you out of here,” I pointed out. “Protect you. Get you somewhere safe.”

He shook his head before I’d even finished speaking. {They know I’ve come here. They must find me, or else they’ll look for me. We don’t have much time.}

I was stunned to silence. This alien was going to use himself as bait to protect us, to keep whoever was following him from looking too hard at what was going on in this parking lot. Possibly to keep them from taking their search across the street into the mall, as well.

Cassie looked about to argue, but I put my hand on her arm to stop her. “Who are ‘they’?” I asked.

The alien’s queer way of talking changed again. Where before I had heard words and speech in my mind, now I experienced something completely different. I somehow just knew the word ‘Yeerk,’ but along with the word came images, ideas, vague knowledge. It was as if he’d somehow passed along a complete concept, mind-to-mind, instead of words. I saw the slug-like body and knew that it lived in a pool of sludge, that the antennae on the end were how they saw and communicated. 

That they infested others and used their bodies.

Another concept followed shortly after. War. This alien, his race, they’d been at war with the Yeerks for a long time. Across decades and galaxies. Fighting for two generations. Fighting with a sense of shame that wasn’t fully explained in this strange form of communication. Someone gasped at the crushing weight of the alien’s sense of duty to his war, a desire to stop his enemy not matter what the cost.

{They come here,} he continued in his previous speech. {They come to enslave you, not to fight you.}

Again I felt the brush of unstated thoughts behind what he told us. ‘Enslave’ became a complete, specific idea without him needing to explain it. They would harvest earth for bodies, for hosts. Use humans like so many tools in their war against this alien’s people. To do that, they would need us healthy and whole, not decimated by a war of our own.

The strange way of communicating, of receiving ideas that were so detailed and yet so vague at once, nearly overwhelmed me. It was like talking in a language with everything so painfully specific that explanations would never be needed. I pressed the heel of my hand against my forehead, trying to process it all at once, but the alien didn’t give me a chance.

{We tried to stop them. We failed.} 

I saw a great battle in space, with Mars spinning in the background. He didn’t think of the red planet as Mars, but somehow I knew that’s what it was. A confusing jumble of strange ships. Small ones firing lasers. Invisible, not like sci-fi lasers, but I knew they were there. Two larger ships on the sidelines of it all. I didn’t get a coherent picture of the battle, just a general sense of combat and loss. A sense of betrayal when it was realized that the Yeerks far outnumbered their foes.

My side ached suddenly, right where the alien’s wounds would have been on my own body. The others must have felt the same thing. Tobias grimaced and clutched his gut while behind me, Rachel cried out softly. We were feeling the alien’s race away from the battlefield. Not his retreat, but his desperate desire to get to Earth and find some last-ditch solution that he knew, with absolute conviction, would be here.

The pain passed as quickly as it had come.

{Hide now. Hurry. They’re coming.}

I didn’t get a clear sense of ‘them’ from the alien. Just a feeling of dread. A knowledge of death. Perhaps the alien didn’t know himself just who was after him.

What he did give us was enough to make us all head for the building, though. I pushed Marco ahead of me and pulled Cassie behind me when those two walked too slow, while Rachel raced ahead and tried to find an unlocked door or window to the offices.

“Wait.” Tobias stopped after a few feet. “Can you tell us your name?”

{War-Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul.} Pride came along with his name. No arrogance. Just pride.

Rachel found an open window and we all ran for it, though Tobias hesitated a few more moments before he joined us. We clambered in the window one at a time, landed in an empty, dusty office. The interior door was ajar and Rachel ran for it, but she stopped with on hand on the knob, looking back at the window with her mouth hanging open.

I turned to look as well. Another ship was approaching, perfectly silent, also invisible except for a few lights on various points. The lights drew an outline of a craft about the size of a large bus, the front end in a wedge shape and the back end curved upward.

Tobias stood frozen by the window, framed by the sill and a perfect target for anyone who looked over. I motioned for everyone to get down on the floor, but Tobias remained standing until Marco, who was closest, dragged him down. 

{Visser Three.}

I was startled to hear Prince Elfangor’s words, even from this distance. I felt his distaste for the name, knew instinctively that ‘Visser’ was a rank, a high one, and that the bearer of the name was despised beyond description. 

For a moment there was only silence outside. I could hear my heartbeat in my ears and Rachel’s ragged breathing behind me, but nothing from outside our office. Then the hiss of an automatic door opening and the scrape of something sharp against metal, sounding vaguely like tap shoes.

{Hork-Bajir.} 

I saw in my mind the creature that made the tap-shoes sound. Seven-feet tall, covered in blades, the claws on its feet clinking against metal. Claws made for climbing trees but easily adapted to ripping apart foes. I knew to be afraid of these creatures, but because they were enslaved, not because they were naturally aggressive. I pitied them.

Elfangor’s thoughts did not tell me why he pitied them so much, nor what kind of ‘peaceful’ life a being covered in blades could have led. Apparently even this abbreviated form of communication could leave things out.

Then a new sound, the sound of hooves again. These were steady, not the footsteps of an injured alien. I crept closer to the window and risked looking out again. Another alien like Elfangor faced the fallen Prince, with half a dozen Hork-Bajir and a dozen men and women in a semi-circle around them. 

I reached to my thigh automatically, but my M9 wasn’t strapped there. I felt a moment of panic before I realized that I wasn’t supposed to have a weapon today. Crouched behind poor cover, watching an enemy converge on a friend, I felt naked without my firearm. But this wasn’t Fallujah; I didn’t walk around armed every moment of the day expecting an attack from all directions. Or rather, I wasn’t supposed to need to.

{Tisk, tisk, Elfangor. Running from a battle? What will your people say when they find out?} The ‘voice’ came from the new blue alien, from Visser Three. His words were clear and crisp, without any of the subtlety and concepts behind them that Elfangor’s had. They sounded hollow and inadequate after hearing the thoughts of the Prince.

Elfangor turned one stalk eye on our window, but quickly looked away. No need to foolishly give away our position. {This is your enemy,} he told us. Somehow I was reassured that the Visser couldn’t hear these thoughts. And I knew that Visser Three was in charge of the entire invasion force. Elfangor must have been very important, to warrant such a high-ranking pursuit. {He is the only Yeerk to take an Andalite host.}

I saw other Andalites like Elfangor, running in a field of pale green grass, or sitting together in a small, carved out hollow in the side of a hill. Laughing without mouths. Touching hands together. Peaceful. I felt a wave of affection for them, Elfangor’s love for his people, tinged with kind of horror that anyone had violated a member of his species. I understood. It was the worst fate imaginable for this free-running species, to be a captive.

{No comment?} Visser Three asked. Elfangor’s exchange with us had only taken a split second. {No heroic last words, no declaration of defiance? Honestly, Elfangor, I expected more from you than this. Quite disappointing.}

I sat back down with my back against the wall. I didn’t want to see Elfangor executed on my behalf. Across the room, Rachel was inching the door open, slowly enough that the movement wouldn’t attract attention.

{No matter,} Visser Three continued. {We can always add your begging for your life into the record later, I suppose.}

Rachel had the door opened enough to slip through it. I tapped Marco and Tobias on the shoulders to get their attention and pointed toward the door. Slowly, we all crept across the floor to the exit.

Elfangor’s words stopped us. {Don’t make a sound. But watch.}

I’d never known before that ‘watch’ could have so much emotion behind it. Could mean at once a desperate plea for us observe his death, to preserve the truth of his final moments against whatever lies Visser Three would spread later, and also a firm instruction that we see what the Visser was capable of. We would need to know later, need to understand if we were to survive.

Still, I didn’t dare stand up. I couldn’t imagine a way to tangle with one of those Hork-Bajir and come out alive at the end. Not without some weapon more powerful than whatever I could find on the ground.

I didn’t have to stand up, though. Visser Three began to change. I heard it before I saw it, heard the sickening crunch and slither before I saw his body grow up past the windowsill, saw his skin twist and melt. His face grew to the size of monster truck wheel and then split across the bottom, showing large, sharp teeth in three rows. His four legs merged into two, each the size of a tree trunk. His arms thickened as well, the fingers melting together into three digits that looked like clumsy crab claws.

There was a short scuffle beside me, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the massive creature long enough to figure out which two of my friends were fighting. I clenched my hands into fists at my sides, desperately wanting to leap out the window and do something, anything, to help. But it wasn’t possible. A tank probably couldn’t fight whatever he had turned into.

{And thus ends our merry little chase, Elfangor. A shame we couldn’t arrange a larger audience for your demise.} Visser Three reached toward the ground and came up with Prince Elfangor in one hand, his crabby fingers digging cruelly into his wounded side. Elfangor struck out with his tail, impossibly fast with each strike, but the Visser ignored him. Elfangor couldn’t do anything besides scratch his skin. {And now you die.}

Still the Prince wasn’t paying him any attention. He lashed out with his tail, but his eyes were on us. {Tell them. Tell everyone.} For once, I had no idea what he meant. About the Yeerks or about his death? Did he even know himself?

The Visser held Elfangor over his mouth, dangling him in the air for a moment, before he dropped him into those rows of razor-sharp teeth. Elfangor finally screamed then, but like nothing I’d experienced heard before. It wasn’t a sound, it was a gut-wrenching, heart-stopping wave of terror and pain and loss. It was the blood rushing through my ears like a tidal wave and lights exploding in front of my eyes and vertigo and sorrow and desperation all in one.

It was over in a second. When I could see straight again, Visser Three was still chomping on Elfangor’s body, blue-black blood running from the corners of his mouth while bits of flesh spewed out like crumbs. The Hork-bajir around him sent up an odd cackling sound, while the humans cheered in the more usual fashion.

Beside me, Marco began to vomit noisily. I grabbed him by the shoulder, but there was nothing I could do to quiet him until he finished. The sounds of cheering outside the window stopped abruptly.

{Search the building!} Visser Three cried. {Hurry! Fools! I don’t care, just do it!}

Rachel tore the door open the rest of the way and bolted through it. Cassie was right after her, then Tobias, then me, pulling Marco. We raced down the pitch-black hallway and I prayed that there was nothing in our way to trip over.

Around a corner, we saw the glow of an exit sign, but before we could reach it someone from the outside started banging on it, trying to kick it in. The others ducked into another hallway; I pulled Marco and myself into a stairwell.

We stepped on a bum who had set up shop on the first floor landing. “Hey!” he yelled. “This is my spot! Get your own.”

The exit door burst open and I shoved Marco further up the stairs. I tried to pull up the homeless man as well, but he kicked me for my troubles. I left him. Not my problem.

We turned the corner at the top of the stairs just in time to hear the man start to shout again, only to be cut off by the sharp fire of a handgun. A large caliber from the sound of it.

Marco’s wide eyes reflected what little light came in through a window. “What do we do?” he hissed, panicking. 

I clamped my hand against his mouth and pulled him off to the side of the hallway, against the wall.

“See anyone up there?” came a voice from downstairs.

“No, just the bum.”

I stiffened, making Marco protest my too-tight hold on him. I knew that second voice.

“Check it anyway. Don’t want anyone getting away.”

As we listened to the sound of boots coming up the stairs, I tugged Marco backward into a shadowed corner next to the stairs, behind a stack of broken office chairs. It was scant cover, but the shadows would make up for it.

Just as we settled in between the trash and the wall, I saw Corporal Cleever arrive at the top of the stairs. The owner of the second voice. One of the soldiers in my company. Young, brash, and too loud for his own good, but a decent-hearted kid. He always offered to pick up lunch for me when I had to work through our break.

Now Cleever held a gun in one hand, idly pointing it this way and that as he poked his head into all the offices that led off the hallway. Sloppy work. Sloppy and dangerous. Not at all like Cleever, who was good at his job despite all else. He never once checked our corner, or any of the other stacks of abandoned equipment in the hall.

Marco touched my arm to get my attention and nodded toward the stairs, but I shook my head. Cleever was at the other end of the hall, but movement would draw his attention. And we still didn’t know what was down there. Stupid, stupid, stupid of me to get us stuck on the second floor, but now we had no choice but to wait it out.

Eventually, Cleever finished his check of the offices and headed back down the stairs. “All’s clear up here,” he called as he descended.

Carefully, Marco and I left our spot and walked down to the other end of the hall, to the other exit sign and the other stairway. I led the way down the stairs, checking carefully for any signs that someone was just around the next corner, waiting to shoot us as well.

The emergency exit door was right next to the bottom of the stairs, providing us with an easy escape. I eased the door open slowly, careful not to show my body in the crack between the door and the wall in case there was someone outside waiting for me. All clear. The door opened into an ally on the side of the building.

“All clear, sub-Visser,” someone said in the hallway behind is. “We found a few transients; it was probably one of them that saw us.”

“I don’t like probablies.” Principle Chapman. I hadn’t heard his voice in ages, but there was no way I’d ever forget it. “Search the entire building and the surrounding area.”

I ushered Marco through the door and then closed it behind us as quietly as possible. Once free, we both ran for our lives out of that ally and into the night.


	3. Chapter Three

I slept on Marco’s couch that night, despite the fact that it was far too short for me. I didn’t get up until late in the morning, almost 9 am. After getting my truck and Marco’s motorcycle from the mall parking lot, we’d checked on the others in person rather than risk phone calls. No sense giving away a hidden friend by making their cell start ringing. But everyone had escaped, and they didn’t want to talk. At least not that night.

Neither did I. I followed Marco back to his tiny apartment, fell over on the couch, and slept poorly the entire night. Every sound made me jump to my feet, a baseball bat in my hands, ready to find one of the aliens from the office building kicking in the door. By the time I finally rolled off the couch for good, I was bleary and grumpy and still unaware of the time. I stumbled into the kitchen for coffee and had to search through all the cabinets to find any. Marco mostly had half-full boxes of sugary cereal and enough ramen to survive the apocalypse. I suspected he just disliked grocery shopping and cooking, since I knew he wasn’t too poor to afford real food.

I found the bag of coffee in the freezer and had to wash out the pot before I could make a fresh batch. Marco stumbled in just as I was pouring the first cup. “The hell are you doing up so early?” he asked as I handed him the mug.

“It’s late for me,” I pointed out. “Half the morning’s gone. I’ll get yelled at when I get back on base.”

I glanced side-long at Marco, wondering if he would pick up on what I’d just said. We hadn’t really talked about the night before, about what we would do with what we now knew.

Marco just sipped on his coffee, scowling at the morning in general. “What are you going to tell them? ‘Sorry, sir, I was up all night pissing my pants after a bunch of aliens tried to kill me.’”

“Basically.”

Marco put his cup down so fast that coffee spilled over the sides and onto his hands. He didn’t seem to notice. “Come again? I did not just hear you say you’re going to try and sell this whole story to the army.”

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“Here’s one: how about we play hooky for the day and try our damndest to pretend that last night didn’t happen?” He finally noticed the coffee on his hands and got a rag from the sink to clean it up. “What makes you think they’d believe you anyway?”

I was about to ask Why wouldn’t they? when I thought better of it. He had a point. People who claimed to be visited by aliens didn’t fare well. “I’ll figure something out. I’ll tell them something else to get them out here to see the site and then they’ll...” 

And then what? Unless there was something leftover at the office building, I had nothing that would convince my superiors that aliens were really among us.

Really among us. I tried not to think of Corporal Cleever. Anytime I did, I refused to even think of him as Cleever. It turned my stomach to think of the boy as having one of those things in his head.

“Jake, wake up. Those guys we saw last night? They knew what they were doing. Fuck, man, they had invisible ships. You think they left anything there for someone to find? What, you’re going to show up and...and trip over an invisible manifold or something? We’ve got nothing. Not even pictures on your cell phone, unless you snapped some while I wasn’t looking.”

I glared at him, not willing to admit that he had a point. “So that’s it, then? You find out there’s aliens invading the planet and you want to sit back on your ass and do nothing?”

“Yeah. I want to do nothing. Because this?” He made a motion with one hand, indicating the entire situation. “This is a little bit beyond just riding the crazy train, man. This is the crazy train crashing head-on with the insanity express smack in the middle of Locotown. And there ain’t nothing we can do about it.”

“Nothing? You really believe that?”

“Did you SEE those aliens last night? Seven feet tall, covered in knives? If you want to tangle with those then go ahead, but I think I’d rather stay all nice and not-mutilated.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My best friend, who I’d known for my entire life, was turning his back on what we’d seen last night. On what we knew, on what we had to do now. We were, if not the only people in the world, then among the very few who knew this invasion was going on. And he wanted to just run away from all that? All because it was going to be a little difficult?

I dumped the rest of my coffee in the sink. “Fine. You stay inside and lock the doors, then. I’ve got to go.”

Marco grabbed my arm to stop me before I could get out of the kitchen. “What are you going to tell them?”

I jerked my arm out of his grip. “I don’t know yet, alright? I’ll figure something out before I get there.”

“You’re going to leave the rest of us out of it, right?” When I just looked at him, confused, he grabbed my sleeve again. “I’m serious, Jake. If you want to go be a martyr, then that’s your own head, but by god, you’d better tell them you were there alone last night.”

“Afraid someone will come put you in a loony bin, as well?” I still couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

“Still going to be so cocky if they end up putting one of those things in my head? In Rachel’s? In Cassie’s? Did you notice all those humans out there? You don’t know how many more of them are around, and if you start blabbing your mouth off to anyone who listens, then the only people who are going to actually believe you are going to be the ones who really want you to shut up. And maybe that’s a chance you’re willing to take, but I’m not.”

I pulled away from him again and stalked out of the room. “Don’t worry. I’ll leave you out of it.” I didn’t wait for his indignant protest before I slammed the front door shut behind me.

I could barely think about what I would tell my superiors during the drive back to base. I was too wrapped up in being furious at Marco. Anger was a very convenient emotion. It let me seethe and fume and not think about the final dying screams of a shipwrecked alien Prince. 

I’ve heard a lot of screaming in my life, and I’ve hated all of them. You hear something like that, feel something like that, and it tears at you. Sometimes I could deal with it. Sometimes I couldn’t. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to deal with Elfangor’s final scream.

Fortunately, he’d given me a lot of other stuff I couldn’t deal with as well. But that, at least, I could lay at the feet of someone who could. I would start with my First Sergeant. 1SG Polk had been with my unit as long as I had; we’d arrived within a month of each other. He’d led us through our last deployment, and he knew I was solid. He knew he could trust me to get a job done and take care of my men, and I knew I would follow him into a burning building without hesitation. With something as incredible as this, it would take some convincing, but I knew Polk would hear me out. Once I had him on my side, we could tackle the brass together. I couldn’t head to the top of the chain of command with a story like this, but I could work my way up it.

I arrived on base just before 10 am, a full four hours after the start of the duty day. Most of the company was in the in the supply room inventorying their rigging and getting ready for our quarterly inspection. A few of them called out to me as I walked past, but I ignored them, heading for 1SG Polk’s office.

The door was closed when I arrived. Polk only ever closed his door when he was discussing something private with someone, usually some disciplinary matter. What I had to say was more important than Private Snuffy’s latest overdue bill. I was about to barge in anyway when I saw through the window who was with him.

Polk and the company commander, Captain Hash, were both having a lively argument with Corporal Cleever. All three of them were standing, gesticulating wildly, talking intensely. I couldn’t hear the words, but I backed off immediately so they wouldn’t see me through the window.

I stood flat against the wall next to the door, hardly able to process what I’d just seen. That was not an argument between leaders and their soldier. If Cleever had been talking to me like that, I would have dropped him where he stood, and I knew Polk and Hash were even less tolerant of disrespect. In that office, I’d witnessed a fight between peers.

And the only way for that to be possible was if the fight was not between Cleever, Polk, and Hash, but between three completely different people.

“Hey, Sergeant.” I looked over to see one of my platoon members, Specialist Rose, walking down the hall toward me. He held a stack of manila folders. “Why are you in civvies?”

I looked down at the rumpled jeans and t-shirt I’d worn the day before. It hadn’t occurred to me to go home and change first. “Been a long morning,” I said evasively. “What’s going on with Cleever?”

Rose shrugged. “Don’t know. They called him in there like an hour ago.”

I watched Rose walk past, heading for the orderly room, uneasy suspicion building in my chest. How much did Rose know? Was he part of this, too? The Yeerks were in my company, they had taken my commanders, but how far did they spread?

I couldn’t tell them about Elfangor. I couldn’t even lie to them. Marco was right, that bastard. If they even suspected what I knew they’d be very interested in making me shut up about it. I realized with a start that I couldn’t even jump over them to someone else, to the IG or the battalion leaders or anyone else. The first thing they would do would be to call my company commander, unless I accused them of something, and then there would be an investigation. You can’t run an investigation on someone without their knowing, so Polk and Hash would have plenty of warning before the truth ever came out. And that would be the end of Jake Berenson. 

The door opened suddenly, making me jump. Polk hung out doorway, looking at me with one eyebrow raised. “Berenson, what the hell are you doing? You’re four hours late.”

“Trouble at home, First Sergeant,” I lied. I tried frantically to come up with something that would be believed, although it was unlikely I’d find something that would get me out of trouble. “My parents. They had to take my Dad to the hospital early this morning. He’s okay, though.”

Everyone knew I’d grown up nearby, and that my parents still lived there. Even so, it was a weak excuse.

“And you didn’t think it was important to call back here and let us know what was going on?”

“Slipped my mind, First Sergeant.”

Polk gave me a long, hard look. He clearly didn’t believe me, but he looked like he was trying to decide if I was up to something sinister, or covering a normal gaffe. Finally, he just scowled. “Go home and get changed. Be in my office first thing after lunch. Don’t think you’re going to get away with this.”

“Yes, First Sergeant.”

I turned on my heel and walked as quickly as I could out of the building. I didn’t stop until I reached my truck again, and then I simply sat behind the wheel, staring at nothing. How could it be? How could a bunch of body-snatching aliens straight out of a B-movie premise take over my company and all without my even noticing?

I tried to convince myself that it wasn’t true. That it couldn’t be true. Surely I would have noticed, and what I’d seen with Cleever in the office was just a coincidence. There had to be some other explanation for that argument, any other explanation. 

But no matter how many times I tried to tell myself that, it wasn’t enough to make me get out of the truck and go find out. I sat frozen to the spot, numb with shock, unable to cope with the fact that I couldn’t trust my command.

The ringing of my cell phone jerked me back to the present. It was Marco. “They got my first sergeant,” I said in lieu of a greeting.

“What? Fuck, man, you to- What?”

“I didn’t tell them anything.”

“I told you not to go back there. I told you this would happen. They don’t suspect anything, do they?”

“Polk does, but I think he just thinks I was playing hookie.”

“I swear, if you get me killed, I’m going to haunt your ass for the rest of your life.”

“What if they kill me first?”

“Then I’ll haunt you in the afterlife. That’s not really the point. Look, can you get out of there anytime soon?”

“Not without a really good lie.” I remembered the argument I’d seen and the way Cleever had looked defensive. Had they been arguing about his performance the night before? “I think I need to stay here and show my innocent, unsuspecting face for a while.”

“Alright, well I just got off the phone with Tobias. He wants to know if we can all meet somewhere.”

“Yeah, okay. Sometime after dinner. I’ll call back when I know I’m getting out of here.”

“Right. Watch your back, okay? I’ve played poker with you, and you kind of suck at bluffing.”

“Jee, thanks for the encouragement.” I hung up the phone and tossed it on the passenger seat. As annoying as Marco was, at least he’d shaken me out of my shock enough to drive home. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that I would need to stay calm if I wanted to get through the day with my head still attached and unoccupied.


End file.
